Bioethics Colloquium with John Arras 'Doing Ethics in Public: The Role of Public Bioethics Commissions and the Role of Philosophers on Them'
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Location: 5 Washington Place, Room 202
Porterfield Professor of Biomedical Ethics and Professor of Philosophy, University of Virginia
Director, Undergraduate Bioethics Program, University of Virginia
5 Washington Place, Room 202
4:00-6:00 pm
RSVP Required-Reception to Follow.
What is the role of public ethics commissions in the formation of public policy within a democratic society? To what extent is "doing public philosophy" different from "doing philosophy or moral theory"? Is there a role for moral theory here, or should we "define theory down" in order to better integrate it into policy debates? And given the seemingly inescapable connection between public policy and politics--see, e.g.,current debates over "rationing" and the Affordable Care Act--can bioethics successfully maintain the separation between bioethics as a normative field of inquiry and politics, as envisioned by "nonpartisan" research institutes such as the Hastings Center?